Facebook Post that Prompted Mississippi Firefighter's Resignation Surfaces

[News]

The post criticized the mother of a child who was struck by a truck.

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[Just Plain Ruff]

Ok, for those who want to know what the content of the post that got the firefighter to resign, this is the text. This really was a nasty post. Maybe he should have resigned over this or have been fired. You decide.

Here's the post.

Sometime following the accident, Alexander posted the following public post on his Facebook wall:

“People never cease to amaze me. Mama yelling oh my baybee my baybee….Hey you stupid ass, where was babyeees mama at while your 2 year old was getting hit by a truck. Mama needs to have her guts cut so there wont be anymore babies. Freeloading ignorant woman”

[Arctickat]

Considering Mama was on her way home from school at the time I wouldn't consider her a freeloader. Sounds like a case of burnout after many years on the job....he finally just kinda "snapped". I've been guilty of similar over reactions in the past...following which I would realise that maybe i was just a bit overboard.

[paramedicmike]

Yep. That's pretty bad.

There are some questions, though.

What is the department's policy on internet/social media usage on and off duty? Is there even a policy regarding off duty social media usage? What were those morons thinking when they tried to argue they they "liked" the post from their phones without reading the entire thing? Are they as stupid as that argument makes them sound?

Should he have resigned? Should he have been fired? Should the others have been suspended? There's not enough information here to really say. If there are, in fact, no policies regarding off duty social media use/commentary then it could be argued that they shouldn't have been. If there are policies in place regarding professionalism, however, then perhaps.

The post itself is ignorant, moronic and grossly unprofessional. Policy or not I think there's plenty of room to support the actions taken so far.

[Just Plain Ruff]

I agree, I'm sure that there will be a race card thrown out there soon. I'm sure that there is a lawsuit coming. I think the article makes that clear.

The actions of this firefighter were let's say beyond bad. Especially the comment about gutting the mama. That's beyond the pale. If I was this mother, I would be wanting more than an apology.

If it was my wife and his comments were directed at her, I'd probably be waiting outside this guys house and taking it up with him in private. We'd have ourselves a little come to christ meeting. I wonder how tough he would be in person.

[paramedicmike]

I don't think any lawsuit would stand up in court if the victims of this FF's diatribe tried to sue. At that point it would become a free speech argument on behalf of the (recently resigned) defendant. It was crass and out of line but protected.

[Lone Star]

Yep. That's pretty bad.

There are some questions, though.

What is the department's policy on internet/social media usage on and off duty? Is there even a policy regarding off duty social media usage? What were those morons thinking when they tried to argue they they "liked" the post from their phones without reading the entire thing? Are they as stupid as that argument makes them sound?

Some local citizens expressed outrage that the men were disciplined for simply “liking” a Facebook post, when neither the Columbus Fire or Police Department or the City of Columbus has a written policy against such activity.

I agree that the posting was as far away from 'good taste' as it could possibly get, and I can see the case being dropped by the court system under the first amendment protections of free speech.

Since the article states that neither department nor the city has a written policy against this type of behavior, any punishments being meted out are in error. How can you punish someone for breaking a rule that you haven't enacted? If that were the case, then maybe we should start locking people in prison just after birth, since some of them will end up there anyway!

*NOTE: The previous statement is NOT a reflection on any particular group/gender/race/color/creed/religion or lovers of any vegetable, whether specified or unspecified!

[paramedicmike]

If you had read closely you would have seen that my questions wondered either case about the policy. Far be it for a reporter to get everything right all the time. Just because the article said there wasn't doesn't mean the article is right.

What's even more interesting is that you chose to ignore the third paragraph of my post questioning the existence of a policy regarding professionalism, questioning the taking of action in the absence of a policy allowing/prohibiting action and questioning the actions taken so far.

[DFIB]

Regardless of policy, he has already resigned. The real issue in court will be if he had the right to say it, and if so, or not so, is the mother entitled to compensation?

I wonder if it will stay in the lower courts and if the ACLU will get involved at some point?

[Chief1C]

I thought it was like "well maybe if you were paying attention... it wouldn't have happened". That's a bit much. I guess if it was because he's burned out... I dunno. Sometimes people fly off the hinge, when they're just smothered with ignorance. Know-what-i-mean-vern? I do that when I'm being depressed by overly stupid, ignorant, I wanna scream "wtf is wrong with you" while hitting you with a frozen chunk of the gene pool, people. But I do it in the safety of the fire house. I encourage people to vent, but not on social media, or in public. At some point in everyone's stint, you'll have a call that will make you want to punch something. Or someone. I punched and broke a lexan window. Do you know how hard it is to break lexan? yeah, have some gauze on stand by.

Edited September 19, 2012 by 1 C